Marion Gibson ’24
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Marion Gibson wears the title of a first-generation school graduate with honors. Her childhood years rising up in poverty in Houston had been her motivation to go to school and break the generational curse.
“I used to be decided to place some respect on my household’s legacy,” she stated. In adversity and triumph, Marion knew she was destined for a greater life that may convey her childhood imaginative and prescient to fruition.
Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown
Marion’s journey at Prairie View A&M College began over 18 years in the past, however her research had been minimize brief after discovering she was pregnant along with her first daughter. Because it turned difficult to take care of her research, Marion was positioned on educational probation and finally dropped out.
A number of brief years after the delivery of her daughter, Marion’s mom, Yelisa Taylor, sadly handed away. “I’m the newborn woman of my household, and to lose a mom at 25, you don’t know the place to show to.” At her bedside, she promised her mom that she would return to highschool. Others near Marion would additionally cross within the following years, together with her grandmother, Mrs. Katherine Jordan.
Dropping her mom and grandmother, Marion has all the time tried to be a mom to the motherless. So when her niece’s lives had been minimize brief (Miracle Beavers and Bri’Jean Swain, who had been solely 19 and 17), Marion was devastated.
Taking every loss in stride, the load of her grief was virtually insufferable at instances. Nevertheless, Marion stored striving.
She enrolled within the affiliate’s program at Houston Group Faculty. All through her research, Marion not solely needed to stability her duties as a mom however was additionally rehabbing from surgical procedure. So far, she’s had 5 spinal and three knee surgical procedures that left her studying stroll once more. With 17 full pins and 4 half pins in her tibia, Marion earned her affiliate’s diploma in arts in 2020 and transferred to PVAMU to complete what she began.
From Tutorial Probation to the Dean’s Record
When Marion enrolled in PVAMU for the second time, she didn’t let being a nontraditional pupil and her duties as a single mom of three cease her from taking advantage of her PVAMU expertise. “I had a blast,” she recollects with a way of affection and nostalgia.
Marion obtained her Black Coat from the Faculty of Enterprise, made the Dean’s Record from 2021-2024, was inducted into the Nationwide Honors Society and the Nationwide Society of Management and Success and obtained quite a few educational scholarships.
She welcomed the extra accountability and recognition as motivation to do extra and lift her requirements even increased. “I shared these achievements with many nice leaders, which impressed me to be better. I needed to succeed in increased and better, and sharing this path with so a lot of my friends made it even sweeter.”
Throughout the highs and lows of her tenure at PVAMU, the household and the sense of dwelling Marion felt on campus by no means left. “The house away from dwelling feeling is the best half to me. After I go away, I wish to come again.”
Play Laborious, however Work Tougher: Embracing Motherhood on the Path to Greater Training
Marion’s daughters, Dream, age 19, a pupil at Texas Southern College; Future, age 16, and Dynastee, age 13, are bodily reminders of her promise to her household and childhood self.
There isn’t one approach to success, however Marion feels blessed to supply her daughters with the blueprint she wished she had. “I had my ladies and my sister’s kids as effectively. They seemed as much as me. I used to be their massive sister. This street was not simple, however I labored onerous and confirmed them that arduous work does repay.”
Navigating her research as a mother posed distinctive challenges, nevertheless it’s made Marion’s accomplishment as a PVAMU graduate rather more rewarding. “They’re one of the best present God might have bestowed upon me. I all the time say God gave me a Dream that led me to my Future; now I’ve my Dynastee within the three.”
Marion seems ahead to seeing her daughters and others in her help circle within the viewers throughout commencement. Her mom, grandmother and niece’s absence can be missed, however their presence will nonetheless be felt.
She says she’s not solely crossing the stage for herself; she is crossing the stage for them. Each step Marion takes can be a witness to her why, her kids, those that raised her and the employees who motivated and fought alongside her via to the end line. “Due to all of the professors who didn’t let me stop; you realize who you’re.”
Sleek Endings and New Beginnings
Finishing her diploma is the primary entry in Marion’s subsequent chapter. Due to the assistance of Dr. Daniel Kennebrew, throughout a latest spring profession honest, Marion discovered about a possibility that would assist jumpstart her profession. She’s secured an internship with Enterprise Holdings at George Bush Intercontinental Airport within the firm’s supervisor trainee program. “This expertise has made me respect the administration area much more than earlier than by being part of a rising and modern workforce. It has additionally made me know that my courses are important and my general purpose in administration feels nearer than ever earlier than.”
Marion hopes the internship will result in a full-time place the place she will show she can be an amazing asset to the corporate.
Whereas it might be simple for Marion to spice up her success solely as her personal, she sees it as a communal, even ancestral effort—a manifestation of the prayers, hopes and tears cried by the ladies who raised her. She acknowledges her onerous work, however she believes the knowledge and data that they handed on have been the important thing.
Moreover incomes a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration, Marion is proud to be ready that can additional her household’s lineage of phenomenal girls.
“I can solely humbly say look what GOD has performed for me. As a result of I believed, I achieved.”
Click on right here to view extra of this semester’s notable graduates.
By Whitney Stovall
-PVAMU-
